Lincoln town country The Lincoln Town Car is a model line of full-size luxury sedans that was marketed by the Lincoln division of the American automaker Ford Motor Company. Deriving its name from a limousine body style , Lincoln marketed the Town Car from to , with the nameplate previously serving as the flagship trim of the Lincoln Continental. Marketed nearly exclusively as a four-door sedan a two-door sedan was offered for only , many examples of the Town Car were used for fleet and livery limousine service. From to its discontinuation, the Town Car was the longest car produced by Ford worldwide, becoming the longest mass-production car sold in North America from to That factory was closed in September ; the final Lincoln Town Car came off the assembly line on August 29, In the s, a town car was a body design typically used for limousines. The description originated from the horse-drawn carriage that featured an open chauffeur's compartment with a fixed roof for the passengers. Later, the " sedan de Ville " was used as a model name by Cadillac, the primary rival to the Lincoln Continental from the s to the s. For , Lincoln augmented it's pre-existing Continental lineup with the addition of two formal sedans known as the Town Car and Limousine. Both new vehicles featured pillared construction, interiors of broadcloth and scotch-grain leather as well as deep pile carpeting. No options were offered with all equipment including air conditioning being standard; the Limousine came with a glass partition between the front and rear seats. In addition to the slightly restrained styling, the change in the roofline was also functional. To add rear-seat legroom, the rear seat was repositioned without any modification in the wheelbase. In the years to follow both Imperial and Cadillac would redesign the rooflines on their own range-topping vehicles the LeBaron and Fleetwood Sixty-Special to appear more formal and limousine-like. One of the rarest vehicles ever produced by Ford Motor Company, [5] Town Cars and 83 Limousines were produced from to ; all examples were painted black. For , the Town Car name returned as a trim package option, including leather seating surfaces and deeper cut-pile carpeting. A raised molding over the roof incorporated coach lamps on the B-pillars. As with the Town Car, the Town Coupe was offered with a standard vinyl roof. As part of the redesign of the Lincoln roofline, the Town Car adopted the oval opera windows of the Mark IV coupe, with the Town Coupe given a large rectangular opera window. The Continental Town Car proved to be a success for the division, becoming the most popular Lincoln vehicle of the s as the Mark IV and Mark V were not technically branded as Lincolns. Closeup image of rear roofline of a Lincoln Continental Town Car, showing padded rear vinyl roof and opera windows. For , Lincoln became the final American brand to market downsized full-size cars. In its redesign, the Lincoln Continental shifted from the largest production sedan in North America to a design with a smaller exterior footprint than Cadillac. Though technically not badged a Lincoln, the Mark VI shared its chassis and much of the body with the Continental to reduce development and production costs. Following the early withdrawal of the slow-selling Lincoln Versailles , Lincoln-Mercury dealers offered three highly similar vehicles across a wide price range in the same showroom. The discontinuation of the Versailles also marked the return of Lincoln exclusively to the full-size sedan segment, leaving nothing to sell against European-brand luxury vehicles. For , Lincoln underwent a revision to transition its full-size model range from three nameplates to one, commencing a multi-year transition throughout all three Ford divisions. For , the Continental went on hiatus, with Lincoln shifting the nameplate to a mid-size sedan for A model year removed from the extensive downsizing of its full-size model range, the Lincoln division underwent a revision of its nameplates. Following the discontinuation of the compact Versailles sedan, Lincoln was left marketing six nearly identical vehicles Continental, Continental Town Car, and Mark VI, all offered both as two-door and four-door sedans. Largely similar to the Lincoln Continental, the Lincoln Town Car was offered as a two-door and four-door sedan the Town Coupe nameplate was discontinued. At the time of its launch, the Town Car was initially slated for replacement by front-wheel drive model lines in anticipation of further volatility in fuel prices ; as fuel prices began to stabilize, demand rose for the model line, leading Lincoln-Mercury to produce the Town Car through the s with few visible changes. Over , were sold for , the highest ever for the model line. Delayed to the model year due to engineering issues, the Panther platform meant radically different exterior dimensions for the Lincoln models. The new Panther platform meant reduced overall size, better suspension geometry, and upgraded power steering with a reduced turning diameter by over 8 feet compared to the Lincoln Continental. For , gas-pressurized shocks were added. Following the introduction of the Lincoln Town Car in , the 5. In Canada, the V8 remained carbureted until These engines are identifiable by their cast aluminum upper intake manifolds with horizontal throttle body vertical throttle plate ; this replaced the traditional throttle body with a carburetor-style top-mounted air cleaner previously used. Introduced in the Lincoln Continental for and marketed in all Panther-platform vehicles in , the Lincoln Town Car was equipped with the 4-speed AOD automatic overdrive transmission, the sole transmission of examples. All Town Cars from to featured an optional trailer towing package which included dual exhausts , a 3. During the late s, the sales of the Lincoln Continental had held steady and the Continental Mark V would go on to outsell its Cadillac Eldorado counterpart. As with its predecessors, the Town Car features nearly flat body sides, sharp-edged fenders, and a radiator-style grille. In a major departure, hideaway headlamps gave way to exposed halogen headlamps the first on a full-size Lincoln since Another first included fully framed door glass retractable vent windows were now standard ; in sharp contrast to its Ford and Mercury counterparts, the window frames were painted matte black. While chrome trim remained around the headlamps and window frames, in a break from Lincoln tradition, it was deleted from the top of the fenders. After only 4, two-door Town Cars were sold in , the bodystyle was discontinued for In the shift from rebadging the Continental to the Lincoln Town Car for , Lincoln replaced the "Continental" badging above the headlights with "Town Car", which was removed in A padded roof was standard equipment on all Town Cars, with its design determined by trim level. On standard-trim Town Cars, a leather-grained vinyl full-length covering with center pillar coach lamps was fitted. For Signature Series and Cartier trims, a padded vinyl coach roof covering the rear half of the roof with a frenched smaller rear window opening was fitted; the coach roof was also an option on standard-trim Town Cars. On non-Cartier Town Cars, a full-length cloth canvas roof was an option; imitating the look of a convertible, the design deleted the C-pillar quarter windows. During the s, the Lincoln Town Car would undergo several exterior revisions. For , the model was given a mid-cycle facelift. In addition to slightly improving its aerodynamics, the design was intended to visually shorten the car though length was essentially unchanged. The front and rear bumpers were redesigned, better integrating them into the bodywork. The rear fascia was redesigned; distinguished by redesigned taillamps, the trunklid was better integrated with the rear fenders. For , to meet federal regulations, a center brake light was added in the rear window. For , the grille was updated with a brushed-metal panel between the taillamps, which now featured the reverse lamps. The "Lincoln" front-end badging is moved from above left headlight onto grille and changed to large sans-serif script. In the rear, the brushed-metal panel was given a pinstripe finish and all badging was moved from the panel onto the trunk lid. All models feature a landau roof with a smaller, more formal "frenched" rear window. All non-Cartier models also include an embedded Lincoln "star" emblems in their opera windows. The interior of the Lincoln Town Car featured many advanced luxury options for its time. Signature Series and Cartier models featured 6-way power seats and manual seatback recliners for the driver and front passenger; the Lincoln Town Car adopted a split front bench seat previously seen on the Mark coupes. Several electronic features included an optional digital-display trip computer showing the driver "miles to empty" and based on driver input an "estimated time of arrival". A keypad -based keyless entry system unlocked the vehicle through a 5-digit combination factory-programmed or owner-programmed. Mounted above the driver door handle, the keypad allowed the driver to lock all four doors; after entering the code, the driver could unlock the doors or release the trunklid. Along with keyfob-based systems, the keypad system is still in use on Ford and Lincoln vehicles as of As part of the update, the Lincoln Town Car was the first Ford vehicle to feature a CD player as an option as part of a speaker JBL premium stereo system ; [14] while was the final year for the option of 8-track players and CB radios for the Town Car. For , the front-seat head restraints were replaced with a taller 4-way articulating design; walnut burl trim replaced much of the satin black trim on the lower dash.